From the museum of  church shame comes BlackSermons.com. Its for “busy pastors on the move”. I saw this at Pulpit Pimps and it really exemplifies why the gospel should not be merchandised in such a way. It was worth a little parody making as this has become a shame to even have to mention.

Personally, I don’t want to hear anything from a so-called preacher TOO LAZY to study, seek God and get food for the sheep under his care. Convenience is now a part of the 21st century preacher’s toolkit. The church is just a business, a money making enterprise to be franchised out to the biggest “seed donor”. And after all, we should be very sympathetic to these “busy on the move” pastors. They are CEO’s, board presidents, corporate kingpins, jet setting honchos and more. They’ve got deals to close, land to survey, people to smooze with and secret “friends” they need to entertain. So they have no time to study God’s word and prepare on their own. Its much more convenient to let Dr. L. Ronald Durham dig it out for you and you just put your spin on it. Durham, of Daytona Beach, FL claims to have the “largest African American” church in the city” so you can imagine what kind of mind this is coming from.

Sure, there’s nothing new under the sun. And sure there’s no need to reinvent the wheel, but this is a monster of a different color. If one has been called to the gospel preaching ministry, it should not be something that has now become so inconvenient that they need to rush into Dr. Durham’s one stop sermon shop and pick up some fast food for tha saints. That’s not the way it should be done.

“Even the Apostles recognized this. Take a look at Acts, chapter 6 around verse 2. The Apostles, in trying to deal with an issue that had arisen, made it clear their first duty was to pay attention to the word of God, apparently in its study and preaching. Their first priority was to be preaching and teaching (as was done in the homes of the disciples).

This in no way matches the model being encouraged by Durham.”

What’s queer about Dr. Durham’s sermons is that they are prepackaged not to offend. They have just the right touch to “transcend” barriers. And let’s not forget to make everyone feel really warm and fuzzy inside no matter who they are. After all that absentee jet setting and ceo-ing, what pastor wants to offend his sheeple with talk about sin, salvation, responsibility, self disciple, commitment to Christ and all the other stuff that won’t keep money flowing into the CEO’s slush fund?

This site screams “hirelings come and get it”.

Shame, shame, shameful. Shame on any pastor for participating in this disgusting dereliction of duty.

As PP points out, you cant even review the sermons before you purchase them but you can read a sample. Prolific, huh?  And if you’ve ever wondered why all the mess and sexual immorality can slither in, take a seat on the front row and say “amen pastah” take a good guess why.

You should also read Merchandising the Gospel by Ken Matteo for a fuller exploration of  unauthorized intersections of money and the gospel of Jesus Christ.